British BNP far-right leader appears on BBC show amid protests | News | Expatica United Kingdom British BNP far-right leader appears on BBC show amid protests 23rd October 2009, 0 comments The leader of the British National Party appearance on BBC's flagship political programme 'Question Time' comes up against stiff opposition on his views to do with immigration. London -- The BBC controversially gave a far-right party leader a first appearance Thursday on its flagship political panel show as angry protesters besieged its headquarters. Nick Griffin, chairman of the British National Party (BNP), appeared on the weekly "Question Time" debate show as around 500 demonstrators joined in angry protests outside Television Centre in west London. Around 30 demonstrators broke into the BBC's headquarters, while others lit flares outside and clashed with police. Six people were arrested and three police officers were injured, one being taken to hospital with a head injury. The British Broadcasting Corporation defended its decision to invite Griffin on the show, saying it was duty bound to be impartial.

The BNP had never appeared on the show before but was invited on after Griffin and a colleague were elected to the European Parliament in June, with the party taking nearly 944,000 votes -- a 6.2 percent share. The BBC's invite sparked passionate debate -- and saw mainstream parties change tack and agree to share a platform with the BNP. "We remain firmly of the view that it was appropriate to invite Nick Griffin onto the 'Question Time' panel in the context of the BBC meeting its obligation of due impartiality," BBC deputy director general Mark Byford said. "Members of the audience asked the kind of tough questions that mark 'Question Time' out as the premier television programme where the public put the panellists on the spot." Griffin faced hostile questions in a show dominated by debates around BNP policy and panellists challenging the 50-year-old on quotes attributed to him. His appearance has dominated the British news agenda this week and was on the front page of most national newspapers Friday. "I've been relentlessly attacked and demonised over the last few days," Griffin said. "I am not a Nazi.

I never have been," he said, adding that "I am the most loathed man in Britain in the eyes of Britain's Nazis" for having stopped the BNP being "frankly an anti-Semitic and racist organisation". He said: "I do not have a conviction for Holocaust denial", adding: "I was very critical of the way in which the Holocaust is abused to prevent serious discussion over immigration." He added: "Our country must remain fundamentally a British and Christian country... based on Western democratic values", saying he stood for people who felt "shut out in our own country". Griffin was on the panel alongside Justice Secretary Jack Straw for the governing Labour Party; Sayeeda Warsi, communities spokeswoman for the main opposition Conservatives; Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne and US playwright Bonnie Greer. Griffin said beforehand that the furore around his appearance "clearly gives us a whole new level of public recognition". The BNP website said it had been forced to take its normal pages offline due to a surge in hits. The BNP wants to "stop immigration and put British people first". Its membership is restricted to "indigenous Caucasian" people, though that is set to change after a recent court battle.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Griffin going on the show was "a good opportunity to expose what they are about". Griffin told Britain's domestic Press Association news agency afterwards that he thought the programme was a "hard-fought match" that would "polarise normal opinion". He said: "A huge swath of British people will remember some of the things I said and say to themselves they've never heard anyone on 'Question Time' say that before and millions of people will think that man speaks what I feel." Robin Millard/AFP/Expatica Ministers warn of poll boost for BNP after Question Time | Politics | The Guardian Ministers warn of poll boost for BNP after Question Time • Party claims biggest ever recruitment night • BBC feared far-right victory in high court • Griffin attacks capital as 'no longer British' Nicholas Watt , chief political correspondent Friday 23 October 2009 15.07 EDT First published on Friday 23 October 2009 15.07 EDT Close This article is 7 years old The British National party will receive a pre-general election boost in the opinion polls, ministers fear, after more than 8 million people watched the far-right leader Nick Griffin's appearance on Question Time on Thursday evening.

As the party claimed that a record 3,000 people had registered to join its ranks in the biggest recruitment night in its history, Lord Mandelson warned that Griffin's exposure would produce "a bubble in the opinion polls for the BNP". He reflected fears across the mainstream political spectrum that the BNP had received a once-in-a-generation PR opportunity. But Mandelson said Griffin, who was pilloried during the programme when he struggled to explain his denials of the Holocaust, would suffer in the end. "When the content and the meaning of what he said sinks in for people, most of them will recoil from what they heard," Mandelson said. "In the short term, he may have done himself a favour. But in the long term he has done himself no good at all." Mandelson's immediate fears were backed up by a poll carried out after Question Time which showed 22% of voters would consider voting BNP in a local, European or general election – including 4% who said they would "definitely" consider backing the party, 3% who would "probably" consider it, and 15% who said they were "possible" BNP voters.

Around two-thirds of those questioned by YouGov for the Daily Telegraph said they would not vote BNP "under any circumstances", with the rest unsure. When asked how they would vote in an election tomorrow, the proportion backing the BNP stood at 3%, up from 2% a month ago. The business secretary spoke out in an interview with Sky News as Griffin mounted an attack on the BBC and unleashed a volley of abuse against multi-cultural London. Griffin said he would launch a formal complaint on the grounds that he had been the victim of a "lynch mob" audience drawn from the capital, which he claimed was "no longer British". During the show, one black Briton accused him of being "completely disgusting" and a British Asian man asked: "Where do you want me to go?" Last night a senior BBC source told the Guardian the decision to invite Griffin on to Question Time now had been motivated by a fear that the BNP would have "a stunning high court victory" against the BBC if the corporation refused to allow the party on the show between now and the general election.

The source added: "If you had a choice about the criticism – was it a bit too hard on him or a bit too easy on him – then we're in about the right place." The BBC said it had received about 350 complaints from viewers. Around 240 claimed the programme had been biased against Griffin, while more than 100 said he should not have been invited. Griffin used a press conference in Essex yesterday to claim: "The British public are aghast at the display of bias from the BBC, the venom from the political class, and the sheer unfairness. That was not a genuine Question Time, that was a lynch mob. "People wanted to see me and hear me talking about things such as the postal strike. One or two questions about what a wicked man I am, fair enough, but the whole programme – it was absurd." In contrast with his emollient remarks to minority ethnic members of the Question Time audience, the BNP leader stridently condemned the decision to record the show in London. "That audience was taken from a city that is no longer British," he said. "That was not my country any more.

"Why not come down and do it in Thurrock, do it in Stoke, do it in Burnley? Do it somewhere where there are still significant numbers of English and British people and they haven't been ethnically cleansed from their own country." The BBC rejected Griffin's criticisms: "The questions on the programme always come from the audience, which reflects a range of views and backgrounds across the political spectrum wherever the programme is filmed across the country." Bonnie Greer, the African American playwright who turned on Griffin during the programme, said she had to restrain herself from slapping him when he said: "I've shared a platform with David Duke, who once was the leader of a Ku Klux Klan, and always a totally non-violent one...". Criticism of the BBC intensified last night as doubts were raised about the wisdom of granting Griffin a platform on such a prominent programme. The former home secretary David Blunkett said: "The BBC played into Griffin's hands by managing to create a victim out of a perpetrator. Their totally unwarranted blanket coverage on news broadcasts leading up to and following Question Time was blatant self-promotion for the BBC.

It gave Griffin an ego boost." The BNP claimed on its website that the programme had led to "the single biggest recruitment night in the party's history", with 3,000 people asking to join. However, it cannot accept any members until it complies with a court ruling to amend its constitution, which currently says only white people can join. Complaining that the BBC had given the BNP "enormous exposure", Peter Hain, the Welsh secretary, said: "They 'hit the big time' in their own words. Their membership has rocketed as a result of the BBC's decision. You cannot treat the BNP – a racist party with fascist roots – like all the others." • This article was amended on 26 October 2009 to give Nick Griffin's quote about David Duke. BBC NEWS | Have Your Say | What's your reaction to BBC Question Time programme? This debate is now closed. What's your reaction to BBC Question Time programme? The leader of the British National Party has appeared as a panellist on Question Time on BBC1. What's your reaction to the programme? Nick Griffin insisted he was "not a Nazi" during his first appearance on the show.

The political discussion programme was recorded as anti-fascist campaigners protested outside the BBC's Television Centre. Mr Griffin was booed at the start of the recording and accused of trying to "poison politics" as he was attacked by fellow panellists and the audience. Should Nick Griffin have been invited on the programme? How did the panel perform? Send us your reaction. This debate has been closed and a new debate has been opened. Please send your comments there. BNP membership list appears on Wikileaks | Politics | The Guardian BNP membership list appears on Wikileaks • Thousands of names and addresses published online • BNP leader Nick Griffin says list 'a malicious forgery' Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, is due to appear on Question Time on Thursday. Photograph: Frank Baron Tuesday 20 October 2009 09.41 EDT First published on Tuesday 20 October 2009 09.41 EDT Close This article is 7 years old A detailed membership list of the British National party containing names, addresses and telephone numbers was published on the internet this morning.

The list, which contains thousands of names, was published on Wikileaks, a website that purports to be a clearing house for information to be published anonymously. The source of the data remains unclear but it appears to show details of the BNP's members and supporters at 15 April this year, as well as data about members whose subscriptions to the party had lapsed. A Guardian analysis of the data suggests the BNP had 11,811 members as of April, including several doctors and military personnel. The party appears to have benefited from a surge in female recruits, with one in eight party members now women. The list reveals that the highest concentrations of members are in Leicestershire, Lancashire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire, while membership is growing fastest in places such as Wiltshire and East Sussex, outside the party's traditional heartlands. Wikileaks said this morning: "The lists have been verified to be accurate in all cases examined by Wikileaks.

However, it should not be assumed that every person with a BNP membership number is a current member of the BNP ." The party's leader, Nick Griffin, said in a statement that the data was "a malicious forgery" made up of a list leaked in November 2008, the names of people who had inquired about the party more recently and "thousands of names of people with whom the BNP has had no contact whatsoever". "We have no idea from where this information has been drawn," he said. "Some of it looks like random items drawn from a telephone book." Griffin said part of the list looked like information taken from the home of a former BNP employee by police during a previous investigation. He said the leak was part of a "hysterical media-driven anti-British National party campaign which is growing in intensity as the party threatens the corruption and treason of the old Westminster parties". The far-right map of Britain: BNP membership by constituency The BNP's leadership was alerted to the leak yesterday and said it appeared to have been timed to undermine the party ahead of the appearance of Griffin on Question Time on Thursday.

The publication of the list represents the third significant time the details of the BNP's membership have been made public. In November 2008, a list of members' names, contact details and in some cases jobs and hobbies was leaked by disgruntled members said to have become frustrated that the party had become too soft under Griffin. In December 2006, an undercover investigation by the Guardian revealed that the organisation's members included Simone Clarke, then a ballerina for the English National Ballet. Welsh secretary writes to Michael Lyons as last resort after director general rebuffs appeal to block BNP leader. By Mark Sweney Published: 20 Oct 2009 Typical member is named David or John and has a job. Most common names for BNP women Patricia, Joanne and Karen Published: 20 Oct 2009 Audience members subject to more stringent vetting as British National party leader joins Question Time panel.

By Tara Conlan Published: 20 Oct 2009 Former army heads sign letter calling for far-right party to stop using reputation and images of military for political advantage Published: 20 Oct 2009 In U.K., Political Extremism on BBC Causes Outrage | PBS NewsHour In U.K., Political Extremism on BBC Causes Outrage October 23, 2009 at 12:00 AM EST Loading the player... A heated debate over political extremism in the United Kingdom came to a head this week when the leader of the British National Party appeared on a BBC show. SUPPORT FOR PBS NEWSHOUR PROVIDED BY MORE VIDEO Controversy Erupts Over Politician's Appearance on BBC Talk Show SIMON MARKS: His name is Nick Griffin, and he was the most controversial figure in Britain this week. The leader of the extreme right-wing British National Party, he espouses an agenda that includes deporting two million non-white immigrants, and preserving Britain for the British.

He has dominated headlines, after the BBC invited him to participate in one of the country’s most popular prime-time broadcasts, a political panel show called “Question Time.” SIR DAVID DIMBLEBY, moderator, “Question Time”: This panel has been the subject of intense debate for many weeks. Tonight, finally, they face our audience, the voters. SIMON MARKS: The BBC refused to bow to public demands for Mr. Griffin to be dropped from the broadcast. The British National Party, it said, recently enjoyed electoral success, winning two seats in the European Parliament and a seat in the local legislature that governs London. Therefore, a top BBC executive argued, the broadcaster’s “responsibility of due impartiality” meant Griffin’s extreme views had a right to be heard, and that attempts to derail the program amounted to “censorship.” As anti-racism protesters besieged BBC Television Centre in London last night, at one point, they breached the building’s security. Inside, members of a multicultural studio audience were giving Mr. Griffin, who was convicted in 1998 of inciting racial hatred and once said of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler that he went a bit too far, a very rough ride.

Outrage in the audience AUDIENCE MEMBER: For just one minute, could you not think of the benefits that parents -- that my parents brought to this country, and other parents from an Asian, from an Indian, from a Pakistani background have brought? No. The vast majority of this audience find what you stand for to be completely disgusting and reprehensible. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Completely disgusting. AUDIENCE MEMBER: You're committed to and reversing -- and you're committed to stemming the flow and reversing the flow of immigration into the U.K., so that we revert back to a white Britain. Where do you want me to go? This is my country. I love this country. I'm part of this country. NICK GRIFFIN, leader, British National Party: ... a shadow of a doubt, I appreciate, but if you look at some of the things I'm quoted as having said in The Daily Mail today and so on, I would be a monster. Those things are outrageous lies. I am not a Nazi. I never have been. DAVID DIMBLEBY: Did you deny the Holocaust? Yes, you did. NICK GRIFFIN: I do not have a conviction for Holocaust denial.

DAVID DIMBLEBY: But you did deny it? NICK GRIFFIN: I... When Will the British National Party Be Back on Question Time? | British National Party Twitter When Will the British National Party Be Back on Question Time? As Question Time is broadcast again tonight there will, as usual, be no British National Party representative on the panel. Although broadcasting from Burnley, Nick Griffin MEP’s North West constituency, rather than selecting any elected North West politicians, the BBC have instead invited Championship footballer Clarke Carlisle onto the discussion show, alongside other unelected political figures and non-local MPs. Presumably the BBC think they have done what is required of them since deigning to invite one of the British National Party’s MEPs onto the show previously; however, a comparison with their treatment of other similar-sized party’s tells a different story. The Green Party’s two MEPs were guests on the show seven times during their last term in the European Parliament, from 2004 to 2009, while UKIP leader Nigel Farage is a perennial guest on the programme, having been on ten times in the last two years.

George Galloway will be appearing on the show tonight for the second time in six months despite holding no elected office for that period. Even much smaller parties get a lot more representation than the British National Party. Salma Yaqoob, leader of the tiny ultra-left Respect Party, has been on the programme six times in the last five years despite only ever holding the elected office of city councillor. While the British National Party is frequently the subject of news headlines and popular discussion, and is often discussed on Question Time, the Green Party, UKIP and the micro Respect Party are not. Only once have the BBC allowed the British National Party to have their say, and after Nick Griffin appeared on the show in October 2009, the Corporation admitted to having changed the programme’s format for the first time in thirty years. This, in effect, means that the British National Party is still waiting for its first real appearance. Readers are encouraged to contact the BBC regarding their failure in abiding by their own impartiality principles, and insist that they invite a British National Party representative back onto Question Time, here . You can also suggest a panellist for the show here .

Impartiality article 4.2.4 of the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines states: “We are committed to reflecting a wide range of opinion across our output as a whole and over an appropriate timeframe so that no significant strand of thought is knowingly unreflected or under-represented. Impartiality article 4.4.1 states: “Across our output as a whole, we must be inclusive, reflecting a breadth and diversity of opinion. We must be fair and open-minded when examining the evidence and weighing material facts. We must give due weight to the many and diverse areas of an argument.” If you liked this news article, please donate online or by ringing 0844 8094581 to help with running costs and improvements of this website. If operators are busy, please try again. BBC`s Question Time and BNP`s Nick Griffin: Stumbling Into The Mainstream, Against A Wall Of Bias | VDARE - premier news outlet for patriotic immigration reform - < BBC`s Question Time and BNP`s Nick Griffin: Stumbling Into The Mainstream, Against A Wall Of Bias > October 24, 2009, 9:00 am A+ | a- Oops!

Please log in to use this feature. On Thursday night, October 22, Question Time . This is the most important political discussion programme in Britain. Its format is typically a panel—Government ministers and senior representatives of the main political parties—that takes questions from an audience of the general public. It is watched every week by millions, and it has considerable influence as a shaper and as a mirror of public opinion. Inviting Mr Griffin onto the panel was both acceptance that he and his party must be recognised as part of the political spectrum within Britain, and was a first-class opportunity for him to put his opinions directly to the largest audience he has ever faced. Now, in reviewing his performance, I must confess that I do not support Griffin or his party. I am a libertarian, not a nationalist. If I am inclined to vote for any political party in Britain, it is for the UK Independence Party , which campaigns specifically for withdrawal from the British Museum . The programme was filmed in London, which is now perhaps the most racially diverse city in Europe. From the opening minutes, it was plain that this would not be—nor was planned to be—a normal episode of Question Time.

The other panellists had conferred and brought along set speeches of denunciation, which the Presenter, David Dimbleby , both allowed and encouraged. Indeed, he joined in with hostile questions of his own. It is unlikely that the audience had been fed questions to put. It was hardly necessary, bearing in mind the demographic profile—quite unlike Mr Griffin`s own electoral base . The questions were universally hostile. So were most of the audience comments. Rather than Question Time, this was an hour in which Nick Griffin was put on trial before the nation, following the sort of process that a Communist police state might have envied. It was all set up to be grossly unfair. I believe that Mr Griffin is planning a formal complaint to the BBC about bias . Sadly, he is missing the point. Whatever unfairness was meant, he was given the opportunity of a lifetime to do two things—first, to show the world that he was not a sinister crank; second, to tell the world directly and in brief what he was in politics to achieve. Judged in terms of this opportunity, his performance was an embarrassing failure. He did make two points very well. The first was to defend his claim that Islam was a “wicked and vicious” religion.

This is a claim that, astonishingly, got him into court a few years ago, and for which he might, had he been found guilty, have gone to prison for seven years. He explained himself with great authority, and the Moslems in the audience were reduced to the defence made by every religious enthusiast—that their “Islamophobia”, but was also a member of a government that had helped murder not far off a million Iraqis in a war of military aggression. But that was it. Otherwise, Griffin squirmed and fidgeted his way through several questions and accusations that he could easily have turned in his own favour. The most important of these came when Mr Dimbleby accused him of having denied the Holocaust. Griffin`s answer at first was that he had never been convicted of Holocaust Denial. He then claimed that he had changed his mind on the basis of some radio intercepts, and added that he was unable to elaborate because of When Mr Straw pointed out that there was no law in this country against denying any historical claim, and promised, as Minister of Justice, to shield him against any extradition request from elsewhere in the European Union, Griffin had no answer.

This came right at the beginning of the programme, and it told me beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Griffin either had done nothing to prepare himself for the ordeal, or had been prepared with crass incompetence. Since I would not accept the post, it is no loss for me that I am unlikely ever to be invited to advise him on handling the media. But if I had been his adviser, I would have given him the following response to the absolutely “I came into the nationalist movement thirty five years ago. I was drawn in because I believed that it answered the question of why believe broadly in that answer. However, I have now realised that how much falsehood is mingled in with that truth. I denied the holocaust without examination as part of a package. I have now looked at the evidence and have changed my mind. You can think what you like of me. But I bet I`m the only politician you have seen here in a long time who admits to having looked at facts and changed his mind on their basis.” He could then have brought in the point he made elsewhere in the programme—his support for Israel . I suspect this would have shut down that whole line of attack. Someone might have accused him of lying about his present beliefs.

But that is always a weak argument. The second idiotic answer came near the end of the programme. Some popular singer had recently been it was drink or drugs. Some journalist had then written an Daily Mail , claiming that this was proof that the homosexual lifestyle was morally corrupt. Everyone on the panel—as is required—joined in the condemnations of the journalist. Mr Griffin began in the same tone, and then announced that many people in this country found something “creepy” in the sight of two men kissing. Of course, this is probably correct. It is not a feeling shared by the liberal establishment—and I am, for what it may be worth, a semi-detached member of that establishment. But not everyone shares our state of “enlightenment”. Nevertheless, my mouth fell open at what Mr Griffin said. Again, had I been advising him, this is what he might have said: “I share the condemnation of this article. I uphold the right of The Daily Mail to publish it, but despise the idea of attacking the dead. “But I would say that, wouldn`t I? After all, I know all about The Daily Mail`s idea of fairness.

If many of the people here tonight think I am the most evil man alive in Britain, it is probably because of some smear against me published in that `newspaper`.” He could then have joined to this the subsequent point he made: that BNP policy was to leave people alone in their private actions, but to Griffin ended by adding that he had been responsible for moving BNP policy to this from a promise to make all homosexual relations illegal again. By then, however, the harm was done. All the predictable condemnations were washing over him even as he was insisting on his own tolerance. He could have turned his answer to an attack on one of his enemies and flattened claims that he was a sexual bigot. He did not. Though I am not a supporter of Mr Griffin`s party, I do have much personal sympathy for him. Now that he has dropped National Socialism, he is normally an effective and indeed eloquent spokesman for millions of people in this country who feel, quite rightly, that they have been deliberately ground into the dirt by both Conservative and Labour Governments. For being this voice, Griffin has faced the sort of persecution I would once not have thought possible in England. He has been smeared. He has been physically attacked.

It was only because a jury disagreed with the State that he was not sent to prison for saying about Islam what may or may not be true, but that had always so far been classed as fair comment. And still he continues to state his opinions. For this, he deserves both But this does not cancel the fact that he was presented with an enviable opportunity by the BBC and failed to take advantage of it. It may be that the sheer awfulness of his performance will encourage the BBC to invite him back. After all, the BBC is the public relations wing of the Establishment, and its job is to destroy people like Mr Griffin. It may now think that another few performances like this will Perhaps it would. I have no doubt there are people in the north of England who would vote BNP even had Mr Griffin called for the slaughter of the first born. But he is unlikely to gather in many middle class votes on account of His On the other hand, he might do better on his next airing. Everyone has the occasional bad night, and he almost certainly has the ability to do better. In closing, I will simply repeat what I have said in my other articles about the BNP.

This is that, while the party is no longer national socialist in any meaningful sense, it is far from being a good vehicle for the opinions that it now claims to hold. This is not because of any possibility that its leaders are hoping to lie their way into power, and then pull off the mask of reasonableness. It is simply because of what its leaders used to be and used to say. Any party that wants to roll back the imposed on my country will face inevitable demonization. The BNP is just too ideal a target for demonization. However much he may have brought it on himself, Mr Griffin was treated unfairly by the BBC. On the other hand, anything that depresses his chances of replacing the Conservatives after their inevitable future collapse, increases the chance that their replacement will be UKIP—for all its faults a more trustworthy and more electable choice. [VDARE.COM note: the London reported on Friday that its post-programme polling showed an increase in BNP support—22% would now consider voting for the BNP, and more than half felt the BNP “had a point”.

BBCCaribbean.com | Curbing racism in Britain Curbing racism in Britain Consultant and former Caribbean Diplomat Racism and xenophobia have once again emerged in British politics, driven by the very difficult economic situation in which Britain is now mired. The grim reality of racial unease in Britain and its possible consequences were highlighted by an invitation by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to a convicted racist and leader of the far-right British National Party (BNP), Nick Griffin, to appear on one its prestigious television programmes, "Question Time". Griffin appeared alongside representatives of British mainstream political parties, including the Justice Minister Jack Straw. Straw argued that he appeared on the programme to confront Griffin and not to leave "an empty chair". Outrage at the BBC invitation to Griffin has been widespread and the BBC's Director-General, Mark Thompson, has been heavily criticised for the decision which he defends by saying that the BBC will not cave into "censorship". As the programme was about to be recorded on Thursday October 22, hundreds of anti-fascist demonstrators crowded the BBC's television studios to protest Griffin's appearance. Well, what are the facts about electoral support for the BNP? The party is not represented in the British Parliament.

In the 2005 British elections, the BNP received a meager 0.7% of the popular vote. But, in addition to already holding seats in several metropolitan borough councils, the BNP won its first county council seats and two seats in the European Parliament in June this year. BNP leader Nick Griffin appeared on BBC TV's Question Time programme While these numbers represent a modest increase in votes for the BNP in local government and European Union elections over the last four years, they do not translate into significant support for the party at the national level in Britain. Traditionally, turn out at local government and European Union elections is small, and seldom does it reflect national consensus except in a national elections year. Racist party The BNP is, beyond any shadow of doubt, a racist political organization with a very strong anti-foreigner position. Its anti-foreigner and racist views are not limited to Africans and Asians, but to Jews as well. In August this year, the BNP was forced to change its constitution after the Equality and Human Rights Commission issued County Court proceedings against it, expressing concern that its membership criteria were restricted to white people.

Prior to the change in its constitution, the BNP stated that it is "committed to stemming and reversing the tide of non-white immigration and to restoring, by legal changes, negotiation and consent the overwhelmingly white makeup of the British population that existed in Britain prior to 1948", and it restricted membership to "indigenous British ethnic groups deriving from the class of 'Indigenous Caucasian'". The change in its constitution removing restrictions on non-white people was never real; it was done to satisfy the Court and to avoid being banned for violation of Britain's race relations laws. On October 15, a group of non-white people was barred from attending a BNP meeting and the reason was captured on video when one of its members told the group: "We don't want you. You are not white British". So, the BNP is a fully racist, fully anti-foreigner political grouping whose main desire is a Britain of exclusively white people except for white Jews. It is repugnant, repulsive and vile without question. BBC rejects censorship But the BBC is right that the BNP and its leader should not be banned from its programmes. Banning the BNP or censoring it would serve the BNP best.

The party would point to such a ban as a policy by the authorities to suffocate its views, giving it ammunition to wage its war against them, and a cause around which to rally its sympathizers. The BBC rejected calls to drop Mr Griffin from the programme It would be far better to bring the BNP's racist and anti-foreigner views out into the open where they can be rejected and defeated. London's former Mayor, Ken Livingstone, argued against Griffin's appearance on the BBC TV programme by predicting that the BNP leader's appearance would spark a rash of racist attacks on blacks and Asians. I believe the opposite to be true. Racist attacks by BNP supporters are more likely to result from banning Griffin from appearing. Griffin himself thanked all those who opposed his appearing on the programme because, as he said, they were "so stupid" that the massive publicity resulted in big financial donations to the BNP which, up to then, had been severely cash deprived. Fringe party The truth is that the BNP has miniscule support in Britain at the present time. It has begun to appeal to some of the working class people because they are under severe economic pressure. Living costs are rising and so are taxes.

There is also a shortage of low income housing, and the traditional welfare state that has been built up since the Second World War is being eroded. In such conditions, it almost axiomatic for the White working class to identify people of a different race as a contributing factor to their woes. Significantly, it is not Africans and Asians alone who are the brunt of current working class resentment. The present financial crisis has also led to job losses to European immigrant workers who are prepared to work for the minimum wage - a wage that the British worker has long rejected. But, at the end of the day, it is easier to identify people of a different colour in violent protests. So, despite the fact that European immigrants are the greatest rivals for British jobs, inevitably, Africans and Asians will be the targets of any violence that may occur. The solution to the problem does not lie in banning the BNP from the BBC or any other media. The party and its leadership ought not to be dignified by the idea that they are feared; they should be confronted - as they ultimately were on the BBC programme "Question Time" - and their fascism exposed and repudiated as indecent, anachronistic and unacceptable.

The real solution lies in the British government and British industry pulling the economy out of the doldrums in which it now wallows and allocating resources to the improvement of the lot of the working class, who, incidentally are not only white but African and Asian as well. Responses to, and previous commentaries at: The BBC's "Lynch Mob" Will Only Promote the BNP A Christian Eye on Politics The BBC's "Lynch Mob" Will Only Promote the BNP Nick Griffin Scores Points at BBC Harangue ...Let us remember that British politics has never been an entirely clean business and always gives people another chance as and when they moderate their views. As an example, we now have IRA members in government in Northern Ireland and certain Labour Party MPs were once active communists. On October 22nd, 2009, Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party appeared on the BBC's 'Question Time,' which is a political, audience participation evening show. Several politicians had attempted to stop the programme from even going ahead due to Mr Griffin's perceived racist views.

In the event, the BBC purposely changed the format of the show for Mr Griffin's appearance without his permission, or prior knowledge, and the BNP leader was effectively subjected to what he later described as a "lynch mob" of constant angry hostile questioning which seemed designed to belittle him wherever possible. So, yet again, liberals demonstrated their hatred of free speech. What seems quite amazing is how the BBC failed to understand that such up-front hostility and seeming determination that Mr Griffin should not be allowed to present any of his views without interruption, would surely work out in the favour of the BNP, and that seems to have been the case. It appears that, within hours, the BBC received about 300 complaints about the programme, and a huge majority were complaining about the way that Griffin was treated. The BBC has been prepared to admit that complainants who complained at the way Nick Griffin was treated, outnumbered those who complained about his views by more than 2-1. Even more telling was the YouGov poll taken only hours after the 'Question Time' debacle. The poll showed that 22% of voters would now consider voting for the BNP, a figure which will frighten many people.

This is surely because everyone on the panel decided to turn 'Question Time' into the Nick Griffin Show and made absolutely clear to millions of viewers what the BNP stood for; in this manner the BNP gained huge credibility because the party unashamedly tackles the thorny issue of immigration, maybe some were unaware of this before the show, now they would no longer be unaware of it. The problem is that the three major British parties refuse to come up with any consistent or coherent policy on immigration even while a majority of the British people want to see all immigration into Britain banned, especially from countries which do not share traditional British values. A 'News of the World' poll of 504 people based on interviews with a random sample of adults on 23 and 24 October, has suggested that two-thirds of Britons feel that the mainstream parties had no credible policies on immigration. The BNP claims that 3,000 people registered to join the party during and after the broadcast, which was watched by a record eight million viewers.

So, like it or not, This 'Question Time' revealed - without a shadow of a doubt - that the British National Party are the only party which shares the widely-held British view that large-scale immigration should be halted. The British are also an innately fair people and - even if one might loathe certain past comments or associations of Nick Griffin - there can be little doubt that he was treated most unfairly, with the odds carefully stacked against him. Mr Griffin has since said that he plans to complain to the BBC as he had faced a "lynch mob." Mr Griffin also complained that the normal format of Thursday's programme had been changed and it should not have been held in London, which he said was "no longer a British city" because of the levels of immigration. Again, there are many Britons, people who are far from being racist, who will be sympathetic to some of these comments. Even more interestingly, Griffin has recently made it plain that his party supports Christian values (he has long been an opponent of Islam), and here is where many Christians (who will, of course, be casting their vote in the 2010 General Election), will have experienced their ears perking up!

Even more so since David Cameron, the present leader of the British Conservative Party, has seemed unwilling to show any sort of support or empathy towards the currently beleagured Christianity within our Isles. Several years ago I stated that any British political party bold enough to reject the presently seriously misguided multi-culturalism and to insist that Britain must once again be considered as, and promoted as, a Christian country, would pick up the votes of many thousands of British Christians. Unfortunately Conservative Party leader David Cameron has purposely separated himself from those older conservative values which were always generally supportive of Christianity and attempted to re-invent the party as strictly 'middle ground' and liberal; this being the case, many Christians who traditionally voted conservative will now have doubts. There can be no doubt that many such people will have carefully noted Nick Griffin's supportive comments. The Christian Hawk continues to lament certain past comments of Mr Griffin and perhaps especially his former association with a KKK member, but let us remember that British politics has never been an entirely clean business and always gives people another chance as and when they moderate their views. As an example, we now have IRA members in government in Northern Ireland and certain Labour Party MPs were once active communists.

It's unjust, insulting and patronising when liberals insist that the public should not even be allowed to hear the BNP's views. The Christian Hawk, October, 25th 2009.

Question: Which leader of the British National Party appeared on Question Time in October 2009?
Answer: NICK GRIFFIN